A Felon's Rights ...

Murderers, rapists, thieves, sex offenders etc., should they be allowed to vote? Advocates say that if they are not allowed after they go on parole, they are being unnecessarily punished twice for the same crime.

The claim is that the ex-felon already pays their debt to society by spending time in prison and should suffer no further punishment such as the loss to vote, disclosure of their address or running public companies. However, the question at issue is: Should a felon lose their rights as well as spend time behind bars.

Few would argue that a drunk driver sentenced by a judge to lose their driver's license and to pay a hefty fine is punished twice. And most would agree that one punishment with several components such as the loss to vote, the loss to privacy is perfectly suitable.

Case studies:

1. Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children And Sexually Violent Offender Registration Actrequires that these offenders be listed in a public registry.

Local State Website for locating sex offenders: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, California

1. Felon Disenfranchisement: Loss of rights to vote.

2. How about a felon becoming sheriff? Story 

Random events are always possible and felons will eventually make their way to wanting to become Sheriff if they were a Sheriff and then was convicted. So what do you do?

1. How about running for President of the United States?

The only requirements for presidency of the U.S.:

*Being a natural born citizen of the U.S.

*Being at least 35 years of age.

*Being a permanent resident of the U.S. for at least 14 years.

Article I of the U.S. Constitution gives the Senate the power to disqualify persons who have been impeached from holding federal office. However, there is no mention of the simple state of being a "felon" disqualifying a person from being elected President.One example of a felon that has run for position of President is Lyndon Larouche.

1. How about Bernie Madoff type profiles? Would you mind if he was a director of a public company after what he did to investors? Even in prison, this is how he responded ...

“F**k my victims,” he said, loud enough for other inmates to hear. “I carried them for twenty years, and now I’m doing 150 years.”

So back to a felons, ex-felon or arrested persons' rights. Where do we draw the line?